Venus Williams' Court-wear Nerves

Venus Williams gets nervous when designing sportswear that the clothes may get in the way of her tennis racquet.

Venus Williams worries her court dresses will get in the way of her tennis racquet.

The tennis champion's outfits have caused a stir recently with pieces from her own design range EleVen, but the star insists she wouldn't let the fashion interfere with her game on court.

She said: "During the design process I'm nervous about, okay, is that going to move and get in the way of my racquet? So when the dress comes and it doesn't, then I'm excited."

Speaking of a lace outfit she wore recently, Venus said: "Lace has never been done before in tennis, and I've been wanting to do it for a long time. So finally, you know, I've done lace. It's fun to wear, obviously.

For me, it's fun to design something that seems to be so successful."

The Wimbledon record holder wants her designs to reflect who she is as a tennis player, and gets inspiration from clothes she spots on others.

Venus told tennis-x.com: "First of all, I try to represent what I think my personality is on the court. The second part is sometimes you just dream it up.

"Sometimes you can see a dress and say, Hey, I really like those slits, so let me put that in my tennis dress. Or I'm dying to do lace. How can we do that on the court and make it work?"